Graphic/FPS issues

Sorry in advance if this is the wrong Forum or if it's been answered before.
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I have a problem that happens basically all the time. When I first start playing any sort of graphic-using program (from major fullscreen games to flash games to iWeb) it works fine for awhile. Not too long after starting it -usually about 5 minutes or so after- the fan starts going and it gradually gets louder, during the time that it's going framerate on my computer is REALLY slow.. this persists for about 15-20 minutes usually and it will suddenly go back up what it normally does..

I know it's capable of playing these games at 60 FPS because that's what it starts out with, but then it goes down to between 4 and 10 FPS during the time that the fan is going. After it goes 'back up' it stays around 30-40 in what I'm usually doing.

ALSO - I should add, this isn't a problem I experienced when I first got it or for a long time after that.. I think I first started noticing the problem around the last OS update.

You're going to need to provide more information about your machine and software prior to someone being able to give you a good answer.

Things like:

Version of Mac you have
GPU you have
RAM you have
OSX Version you have
Software you have running in the background

Provide the information @Nethfel asked for, and at the least add your Mac information to your profile so that we can quickly check that information..

Remember a Mac isn't like a console where just saying you own a PS3 or XBOX 360 immediately tells others about the devices capabilities..you need to elaborate to get any useful answer back..

Regards

I'm using a macbook..
3GB ram
OSX version 10.6.4
and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

It happens whether or not there are background programs running

Put a temp monitor on it?

Village Idiot said:

Put a temp monitor on it?

Click to expand...

It's not a problem with the screen, that much I do know.

The next time it happens do this:

Go to Applications, Utilities. Open the Activity Monitor.app and look to see what's consuming the CPU and memory. Copy it down best you can and post it back here.

A quick note about flash... Any kind of flash intensive game or graphics display, (video, etc) will ramp up the fan as flash taxes the system fairly heavily. In fact, you may see the frame rate going up and down during that time. Your GPU should be able to handle most, but not all graphic intensive games and displays. It's normal to see some degradation during that time.

Was this happening before you upgraded your RAM to an unmatched 3GB?

chscag said:

The next time it happens do this:

Go to Applications, Utilities. Open the Activity Monitor.app and look to see what's consuming the CPU and memory. Copy it down best you can and post it back here.

A quick note about flash... Any kind of flash intensive game or graphics display, (video, etc) will ramp up the fan as flash taxes the system fairly heavily. In fact, you may see the frame rate going up and down during that time. Your GPU should be able to handle most, but not all graphic intensive games and displays. It's normal to see some degradation during that time.

Click to expand...

I've checked this before, it never uses up more than 300MB of memory or so & 40-50% CPU.

I took a sample from the program that was running through activity monitor and the line "AssertandCrash" came up a lot

6string said:

Was this happening before you upgraded your RAM to an unmatched 3GB?

Click to expand...

As above?

temperature monitor to see if everything is working - not a video monitor
Apple - Downloads - Dashboard Widgets - iStat Pro
It should tell you fan status, etc and what is heating up.

And yeah - any flash will kick up the temp/fans.